There was a time when listening to electronic music was taking a bold and uncertain journey into territory that was unexplored, uncertain and at times confusing and dangerous. Computers were in their infancy and the new instrument called the synthesizer was blowing our minds.
When I was twelve, my mother bought me a record album with a weird cover, titled "The In Sound From Way Out." It was quirky, crazy electronic pop music created by Perrey and Kingsley. Nothing like it had ever been heard before. I was instantly hooked. I began searching record stores for more examples of this "electronic music" stuff and made many wonderful discoveries by such pioneering artists as Ruth White, Beaver & Krause, Tomita and many others.
The music they made could not be produced by normal instruments like guitars or pianos. It was new music for the modern age, the age of space ships, alien visitations, inner journeys and cosmic discoveries. In 1968 electronic music hit the big time with the release of the first electronic music recording to win a gold record- it was also the first classical music album to win a gold record. Wendy (then Walter) Carlos' "Switched On Bach" was a pioneering experiment that made the synthesizer a household name.
In reality, electronic music was as old as the discovery of electricity. Unfortunately none of it was able to be recorded until much later. With the invention of the tape recorder electronic music began to grow in underground and academic circles. Electronic musicians and their fans were like members of a secret club for several decades. It was a wonderful time of freeform experimentation and discovery by the musicians and audience alike.
Then came the death knell of disco. The tyranny of the beat box. Soon all that was left of electronic music was a pale repetative droning abomination labeled "electronica." A soundtrack with which mind numbed nihilists waste their lives away.
The soundscapes (for I dare not call my initial experiments "music") of X Perry Mental are my attempt to recapture the glory days of early electronic music. Each piece I create is an effort to reach those far off cosmos or search those inner pathways the early electronic pioneers took me to in my youth. I hope you will find them to be a worthy diversion.
Click on the "lyrics" tab of each song to read the story behind each one. Thanks for checking out my experiments!
I also run an internet radio station which specializes in all kinds of strange, rare, unusual & off the wall music- as well as new unsigned bands. Come check it out:
